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Posts: 1237
Location: South Portsmouth, KY | Hey guys. I have an 8'6" MI Super Mag rod and i have noticed that i have lost more fish with this rod than with others that are lees stiff and more limber. It is an XH rod. has anybody else noticed this or have had this problem. It obviously takes more pressure to keep a good bend it in. Just lookin for feedback. |
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Posts: 742
Location: Grand Rapids MN | I have that exact same rod and have had great success with it. I lost my first fish this fall on a Mag Dawg but that was my fault (sleeping on the hookset). I've asked myself the same question because the rod does seem a bit stiff but when I stepped down to a softer rod (1-6oz) I started missing hook ups on dawgs and #10's were a beast to figure-8. I've hooked and landed fish casting, on the 8, and trolling with this rod and so far all but one has made it in the net. But I think you're right about keeping good pressure on for the rod to do its job. |
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Posts: 388
| An observation from the opposite spectrum, I used to complain that my Lamiglass 8'6" rod was too noodly, but after netting nearly every fish that I hooked on it this year, I have learned to use it for the right lures and take advantage of what a more limber rod can offer once a fish is hooked. I got away with some stuff that simply would not have worked on other rods. |
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Posts: 1184
Location: Iowa Great Lakes | I also notice it and I didn't care for the weight of it, much better rods out there IMO. |
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| I have used this rod for the last 2 seasons and I've been very happy with it. The rod stretches over time IMO. It doesn't seem nearly as stiff as it was when I first bought it as it has seen a lot of use. I have caught around a 100 fish on just that rod. I also have the 9', and IMO the 9' is a beast compared to the 8' 6". Just so we're on the same page, both rods I have are rated up to 40 oz. I've lost more fish on the 9' than the 8' 6" on average. |
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Location: MN | I have an 8ft from when the rods first came out and agree that they soften up. I like the rod so much more today now that it has the extra-flex than when I originally purchased it.
Edited by Mak51 12/14/2009 10:24 PM
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Posts: 742
Location: Grand Rapids MN | Mak51 - 12/14/2009 10:24 PM
I have an 8ft from when the rods first came out and agree that they soften up. I like the rod so much more today now that it has the extra-flex than when I originally purchased it.
+2 on the rods softening... gets better ever year! |
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Posts: 375
| at this time i do not own any of the MI rods. i purchased two of them shortly after they came out and sold them within a month simply because physical-weight-wise they were noticably heavier than the st. croixs i had been using. the rod stretches over time?...the rod softens up the more it's used? personally, i have never heard of such a thing. has anyone else out there noticed this occurance with other rod brands they are using? can this possibly be that those that are saying this simply have gotten extremely "comfortable" with the rods and it just "seems" like the rod itself has "changed"? |
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Posts: 540
Location: MN | The 8'6" big dawg that I got last year was mutch softer this year than last & when I bought a new big dawg this spring it was stiffer than last years. So I do think over time the rod getg a little softer. |
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Posts: 375
| ok, let me get this straight, you gents are saying that if we all buy rods based on their bait weight rating / action / etc and if we find they are "perfect" for what we wanted them for when we first begin to use them that shortly there after they will "loosen up" and no longer be the "same" as when we began using them? wow, that's a can of worms for the manufacturers to deal with and or for the used rod market...pick one! among other croixs, i've been using my big dawg rod for two years now and it's the "same" as it was from day one. so did i get a "good" one that is maintaining its' "integrity" or did those that "feel" the difference from now since they first used their's get a "bad one"? so in the future, if my croix big dawg rod gets "softer" can i sell it as a "sling blade"? wow, fall / winter has reeeeeeeeeally set in early here! let's here from some "materials" engineers concerning the "stretching" of our rods...no pun intented...:) although i don't golf, i'll bet there's a few tiger woods jokes imbedded in there that letterman would surely go for!
Edited by STUSHSKY 12/15/2009 9:18 AM
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Posts: 540
Location: MN | It's the same with composit soft ball bats the composit gets looser and kind of breaks in. I do know for a fact that my new big dawg is stiffer than my old one that might be becaus I throw a lot of 2 pounders and 14" jakes with it. But even with the same baits on the new one it's still stiffer. |
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Posts: 375
| so you are saying that the quality control process of rod manufacturers is so bad that we as consumers have no clue as to what we will receive when we purchase a rod? i beg / hope to differ, although i don't own a variety of different rods (100% st. croix legends) i would assume / hope that rod manufacturers have some sort of "quality control" process that they follow. maybe if they would let us all know what their quality control process is they might sell more? i have "called-out" before and have had my post deleted...let's see what happens here... |
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| Not an engineer Stu, but it's something that I have noticed over time. I have thrown pounders, a lot of mag dawgs, and cowgirls w/ it. Also have used it as a sucker rod. I don't use my 8' 6" anymore for pounders due to the fact that it is not as stiff as it used to be. Sure it can handle the pounders still, but it's not ideal for pounders IMO. My 9' has minimal use, and that rod handles pounders great. This of course is just my opinion and what I have observed from 2 years experience with this rod. Nothing set in stone. I wouldn't mind hearing a MI rep.'s opinion on this as well.
Stu, like others have mentioned above, I think I like the rod better now than I did when I bought it. Gives it a little more flex to handle the headshakes.
Edited by Baby Mallard 12/15/2009 10:24 AM
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Posts: 375
| yes, we musky anglers are "wacked out" but that is the way we are. as an engineer myself (fluids...is rod material a fluid?). let's all call out the rod manufacturers as to presenting their data they have to prove what we are talking about here. this may take a while since many of them will have to wait for a translator to respond...
Edited by STUSHSKY 12/15/2009 10:30 AM
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Posts: 540
Location: MN | This has nothing to do with quality control it's all about the material used to build the rods. Graphite rods loosens up. I don't think there's a way around that when graphite flex it gets looser and will flex with less force same as a composit bat.
Good debate though.
Edited by Tim Schmitz 12/15/2009 10:31 AM
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Posts: 375
| tim,
can you give us all data that proves that in a form that the average musky rod buyer can understand?
Edited by STUSHSKY 12/15/2009 10:39 AM
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Posts: 540
Location: MN | Nope I just know what the rod was and is now and what happens to a bat made of the same material. Sorry not an engineer just a machinest. |
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Posts: 375
| thanks tim,
i have grown to realize that engineers tend to live in the "paper" world vs. machinists that live in the "real" world. i just don't understand how a "solid" like graphite stretches / gives over time!
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Posts: 540
Location: MN | I "think" mabey it's like a piece of steel if you keep bending it back and fourth it gets easy to bend but the graphite still keeps it's strength. I think that's the best way to describe the "streching" of a rod.
Stan, I'm a Muskie fisherman I think that my world is the furthest thing from reailty!
Edited by Tim Schmitz 12/15/2009 11:07 AM
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Posts: 375
| let's hear from the rod manufacturers / "pro staffers" concerning this...
Edited by STUSHSKY 12/15/2009 11:55 AM
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | I belive the term should be "broken in".
I do think that if you throw Pounders for 8-10 hrs. a day for a few weeks a year that will cause your less expensive M.I. rod to loose some of it's stiffness . you can also look at it as programing memory into that rod ,by using the same heavy lures.
As an industrial Contractor for 32yrs. I can tell you that "most,......not all" engineers only see in black and white......especially the ones just out of college
Let the shnit begin.
Jerome
Edited by Top H2O 12/15/2009 1:45 PM
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Posts: 4343
Location: Smith Creek | Pure graphite has no memory. Pure graphite also would fall to pieces in your hand, so its held together by resins. The more memory your rod has the higher the resin to graphite ratio. This MIGHT add some durability but also the spongy feeling you have with some inexpensive rods. |
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Posts: 742
Location: Grand Rapids MN | As a Mechanical Engineer I over hear comments like this from time to time... just to find out that the people making the comments have never met or worked with one. Let alone suprised to here that I am "one of those guys." But I do admit just like any profession....there's quit a few I've ran into that just take up space.
I can't comment on why these rods seem to being doing this because I don't know exactly what it is made of. It was an observation I made over the past few years using this rod and now see others have had the same observations. For the $93 I paid for the rod new and shipped I can't complain. Is it a St. Croix.... I would assume not but for the money I paid its a perfectly fine rod.
Man its barely winter! |
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Posts: 299
Location: Nowheresville, MN | My Slingbade softened midway through this season (the first), as did the premier version of the Big Dawg. I've also had it happen to "lesser" rods that I've owned. I happen to like it. The change seems to happen in the place where the rod loads which, for me, makes casting easier and longer. Instead of heaving pounders with the arms/shoulders now the rod launches them with only the wrists. |
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